A massive live edge Claro Walnut slab from Oregon was the genesis of this beautiful dining table set. It is 2-1/4” thick, almost the size of a sheet of plywood, and weighs over 200lb - a beast; a behemoth. As I began sanding away, it’s sheer beauty began to surface. An elegant and striking piece this would be, it deserved a dynamic base to cradle and show off its sparkle.
Edensaw Hardwoods Ltd. just so happened to be having a sale on some huge planks of Sipo Mahogany, so my client and I decided to take a chance with it. The combination of Walnut and Sipo turned out to be quite beautiful. To stay within the slab nature of this project, I decided to resaw two large Sipo timbers in order to create a book matched effect for the bench tops. With just a simple border of Walnut and bench bases with the same foundation as that of the table, these three pieces naturally exist together, mutually supportive and mutually enhancing.
The final touch to note on the table base is that it can be disassembled and flat packed. The stretcher between the two leg assemblies connects everything together using two twin folding wedge joints, made from some scrap Purple Heart.
This great project is at home now in a kitchen that I also designed on the Coyle Peninsula in Washington.
I had the pleasure to work with this client to design a kitchen that would satisfy his needs in function, and his taste in aesthetics. This 1950’s bungalow has an incredible view of the Olympic Mountains from across Dabob Bay, but the original cabinetry and decor of the place felt lacking.
There was a lot of cedar saved form the renovation, and initially he wanted to use it for the fronts of the cabinets. I felt that cedar would be too soft to stand the test of time, so we went wood shopping. We went to Pacific Northwest Timbers in Port Townsend to see what kind of salvaged lumber might fit the bill. On a whim I suggested that we look at their supply of redwood, and after browsing some samples of the material, we both agreed that it was the solution.
These redwood staves are first or second growth, and were salvaged from an old industrial-sized cherry juice press in Northern California. Each stave was resawn, then planed to thickness in house. As I glued up the panels for the doors and drawer fronts, I carefully matched up the grain in various ways, resulting in a “waterfall” effect of continuous grain from top to bottom. All of the cabinet construction, woodwork, and finish work was done in house.
The kitchen design includes a pull out pantry, a swing out corner unit, and a secret “tap to open” upper compartment. All hardware used is high quality and soft-closing.
The Keg and I is a craft beer taproom located in Chimacum, WA. I was deeply involved in much of the remodel of what was originally a farmhouse built in 1905. Many of the photos are during construction and amidst finish work, so please excuse the blue tape and plastic drop cloths. We saved much of the old growth Douglas Fir from inside the house (interior sheathing) and reused it wherever possible.
The bar is seventeen feet long, and built from three four-inch thick slabs of Ponderosa Pine from Idaho. I built it offsite, and did a hand buffed epoxy finish in place. The front of the bar (where your feet kick) is faced with salvaged old growth Douglas Fir that we saved from the interior sheathing of the house.
The table tops are all built from the same salvaged Douglas Fir, and epoxy coated.
Two Broad Leaf Maple slabs from down the road were also milled especially for this job, and are used for the water station, the street-facing window bar, and the drain platform under the twenty taps.
The arch above the taps is a piece of driftwood, unidentifiable. The speculations are Maple, Apple, and Hemlock. I’m not sure what it is, but it is pretty. The satin polyurethane finish works perfectly for writing above each tap with an erasable chalk marker. The back splash is a single sheet of mild steel that has been coated in polyurethane.
Building the Keg and I was a lot of hard work, and certainly a lot of fun. I got to create solutions to problems by blending creativity and practicality - a, unexpected, yet rewarding application of my education in Industrial Design.
I designed this custom bench to fit a small entry nook in a craftsman style house in the Pacific Northwest. Upon entering the house, there was nowhere to remove shoes, passing the veil from outdoors to indoors. An instance of old growth forest presented with minimalist design was just the answer.
Crafted from 100% reclaimed/salvaged old growth wood, this sweet little bench showcases Douglas Fir from a 1905 farm house in Chimacum, Washington, and a partially burnt live edge White Fir slab from the Northwest coast. It can easily sit two people, and hold several pairs of shoes on the rack underneath.
I used no metal fasteners in this piece; it relies on clean joints, glue, and simple joinery. The slab is sealed with a non-toxic epoxy resin and top coated with natural shellac, along with the rest of the base.
Pieces like this are so much fun for me to create. Using 100% salvaged wood, I get to play detective throughout the building process, bringing the story of the old wood to the surface. A forest fire, a drift in the ocean, an unbalanced or bent saw blade of an ancient mill, old bug trails, and many years of weather are all present here.
These clean looking European style cabinets provide the essentials for this tiny kitchen, in this tiny house, with the simplicity and beauty of maple. All hardware used is high quality and soft-closing.
This delightful piece was a very fun project to create. The client wanted a bookcase specific to her own measurements, and wanted to use reclaimed woods instead of using new lumber for everything.
As a wood nut, I collect unique pieces of wood and lumber with interesting stories. the case is made from a Red Alder tree that my friend Jason Vines salvaged - it was going to be bucked up for firewood, but he decided to slab it out to see what was inside, and after drying it in his home brew wood kiln, it revealed some gorgeous figure and color from the spalting.
The doors and shelves are made from a couple of Ponderosa Pine boards taken from a 1930’s produce crate from the California Central Valley. The door frames are VG Fir from some old piece of wood that came with the lot.
The top piece is a small live edge slab of Broad Leaf Maple sourced locally, left over from a friend’s home construction.
Finally, the handles of the doors and drawer are pieces of driftwood from the area.
This is a sixteen foot long, live edge fireplace mantle, made from a thick slab of Western Redcedar. It is coated with epoxy, and buffed out to a wet, oiled looking sheen.
I love Madrone.
Arbutus menziesii, Pacific Madrone, is an evergreen tree that is endemic to the Pacific West Coast. Its little red berries have historically been a source of food for Indigenous people along the coast and its foothills. The tree is best recognized by its thin, smooth bark that becomes curly as it begins to shed each year.
The wood is blond-pink, with a fine grain. It is very hard. The wood is very unpredictable. As it dries, the high amount of stresses in the wood will usually cause it to crack, or ‘check’ in wood terms. This can be a big split down one side, or many little checks all over. Although this is often seen as inconvenient, I find these ‘defects’ opportunities for exploration. In this didgeridoo I filled each check with dark tinted epoxy. The effect is magical - each crack is announced as a void, an empty space, resulting in a playful dynamic of light and dark. The sound of this instrument likewise, is warm and rich, ferocious and driving. For years it was my didgeridoo of choice, and then a lucky man convinced me to sell it to him. It now continues its story in Southern California.
Pacific Madrone log, Curly Cherry, Eastern Hard Maple.
